this is bill taylor talking. he says ambassador sondland told me that he zelensky was dependent on a public investigation. he says president zelensky was in a box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations. so to manu's point, it's not directly coming from president trump, but it sounds like it's trump to sondland to taylor. is that good enough for democrats here? >> he doesn't suggest all this has been freelanced. when you talk about what is good enough, frankly, you talk about prosecutorial discretion and prerogative in a criminal case. when it comes to impeachment, we're talking about whatever it is congress says is sufficient to constitute abuse of power. frankly, the pure breadth of this system that you're seem outlines the abuse of power that you're seeing that is part and parcel to the impeachment inquiry for a variety of reasons. the notion that what bill taylor seems to be very concerned about is the overwhelming and cannot be overstated leverage that the united states had with respe

diplomat bill taylor. lawmakers will question him next week during public televised impeachment hearings. how powerful do you believe ambassador taylor is as a witness. >> it is good to be with you again, wolf. and ambassador taylor is an important witness, one, because of his inherit credibility, this is somebody who served the country and incredibly well who is a vietnam war veteran, decorated hero, west point graduate, a diplomat of impeccable credentials and his testimony will confirm that the underlying narrative which is that the president betrayed his oath of office, that he abused his power by pressuring a foreign government to target an american citizen for political and person gain by soliciting foreign interference in 2020 election. betrayed the integrity of our elections in that process and violated the constitution. >> what would you like to hear from some of the lawmakers when these televised hearings begin next wednesday and millions of people across the country will be watching? >> well, th

in exchange between adam schiff and bill taylor? >> bill taylor. this will give us a flavor for what we can expect in front of the cameras next week when bill taylor testifies publicly. this is one where we noticed chairman shift saying behind closed doors of the initial testimony, this is the first i'm hearing of security assistance, not just that the white house meeting was being held up there but it was conditioned on the investigation. did you mean that if the ukrainians didn't do this, the investigations, they weren't going to get that, the meeting in the military assistance? bill taylor says under oath, that was my clear understanding. security assistance money would not come until the president of the ukraine committed to pursue the investigation. adam schiff response if they don't do this, they won't get that, is your understanding? taylor: yes, sir. adam schiff says are you aware that quid pro quo while means literally this for that? and if taylor says i am. behind closed doors they were able to get somebody who they believe to be a nonpar

diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor. the repeatedly described a quid pro quo to lawmakers behind closed doors and now publicly scheduled to testify one week from today. we're joined by our analysts and reporter. one of the things you're learning about this attitude towards the secretary of state, mike pompeo, over at the state department. >> we've talked to a lot of foreign service officers, career state foreign service officers. the general idea is they have lost confidence in him. he encouraglost confidence in ar yovanovitch. and our report is there has been a sea change at the department. pompeo, when he came in, did a number of good things at the department, who felt they were threatened during the tiller scenario and letting go of hiring freezes. he was doing good things. we heard about that during the testimony from one of his former top advisors, michael mckinley and spoke about things when it was good and now they're devastated over what is happening and lack of support they are getting from pompeo and they're fe

diplomats still serving in ukraine, bill taylor. it's our understanding that during his closed-door testimony, taylor explicitly tied president trump to a quid pro quo, explaining how he was told, quote, everything depended on ukraine publicly announcing investigations. this transcript which is about to be released should confirm and expand on this reporting. but we're also learning we'll soon no longer have to rely on these transcripts because the first public hearings into the impeachment into president trump begin exactly one week from today. up first is bill taylor, followed by state department official george kent and the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. until then, these confidential hearings continue. david hail a top state department official is testifying on capitol hill right now. kaitlan collins at the white house. what are you hearing? >> reporter: there was a heightened level of concern about them. they've seen these people go behind closed doors for several weeks. now they are going to be taking the

the republican counsel's exchanges with bill taylor at one point were actually funny. at least it appeared to be funny to ambassador bill taylor. >> ambassador taylor, i want to turn to the discussion of the irregular channel you described. in fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it's not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct? >> it's not as outlandish as it could be, i agree with that. >> ah, yes, sir. could be even weirder, i suppose. they could wear, like, mexican wrestling masks, that would make it weirder. but so, that's like how the committee counsel starts on the republican side, but then, point of order here, if you right now are washes dishes or not looking at the screen, this next thing i'm going to show you is a visual, you want to see this. just watch how ambassador bill taylor responds as the republican committee counsel keeps going down this road, trying to get bill taylor to agree that what president trump was trying to do here in crew yan with his cast of characters that were, like, taking over and running a parallel foreign policy tha

despite bill taylor saying documents might be coming. our reporting indicates tonight those documents may not be coming at all. if the supporting documentation for what these witnesses is testifying about is not going to turn up and committees aren't going to get that paper, what does it mean for impeachment proceedings and all these witnesses the ones today and stacked up for the next two weeks? they all kept notes. but the administration is keeping their notes and their communications, their e-mails, their text messages, in some cases even their phones and they're not letting the committees see those items and documents. what does that do to the process? hold that thought. s that do to e process? hold that thought. who doesn't love a deal? i do. check out the united explorer card. savin' on this! savin' on this! savin' in here. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. >>> what year did you graduate from west point? >> 1969, sir. >> that's the height of the vietnam war, wasn't it, sir? >> the height was about that time. >> wha

it wasn't someone like bill taylor or vindman. and the other one is robert mueller himself where after a lot of buildup, that was a case where the book was better than the movie. it wasn't a compelling testimony. and here the question will be we know we've read bill taylor's testimony now, but will seeing him and hearing from him and others be only strengthen the case? >> you know, robert costa, those are good examples of how the president was sort of suspended in time while there was road block coverage of someone other than him, something a close friend of his described to me as enraging him, that he's a sun king and anything that blocks the sun from him bothers him on its face. but i'm also thinking of christine blasey ford. and i remember understanding and hearing that while she was testifying, he found her to be credible, that he is such a sort of devotee of television that a little piece of his brain has to have some anxiety about the impact of hour after hour after hour and day after day after day of lifelong anonymous dipl

ambassador bill taylor arrived. waiting for deputy assistant secretary of state george kent to arrive as well. the historic day here in washington, in the nation's capital. we're watching lawmakers and witnesses arrive on capitol hill. i'll speak live with the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. that's coming up next. a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. neutrogena® at kay we know that every gift is important. but the most important gift is the one you give to the person who believes in you... ...all year long. every best. gift. ever. begins with kay. i'm part of a community of problem solvers. we make ideas grow. from an everyday solution... to one that can take on a bigger challenge. we are solving problems that improve lives. to one that can take on here hold this.nge. follow that spud. [ tires screech ] the big idaho potato truck is touring america telling fo

bill taylor recounted a conversation between trump and u.s. ambassador to the european union gordon sondland on july 26th, a day after trump spoke by phone to ukrainian president zels and pressed them toin investigate the biden family and the 2016 election. >> the member of my staff could hear president trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. mr. sondland told president trump that the ukrainians were ready to move forward. following the call with president trump the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought about ukraine. ambassador sondland responded that president trump cares more about the investigations of biden, which giuliani was pressing for. >> reporter: at the time trump had already frozen military aid to ukraine. diplomats were panicking about the facial security ramifications of with holding the funds and ukrainian soldiers were dying on the front lines in the battle with russia. according to today's testimony, trump was primarily concerned about his own political prosp

i'm going to let bill taylor tell you the story. you've got to hear it for yourself. >> in the presence of my staff at a restaurant, sondland called president trump and told him about the meetings in kiev. my assistant could hear him on the phone and mr. sondland told president trump the ukrainians were red a to move forward. >> a member of bill taylor's staff was a witness of a phone call between mr. sondland and president trump. he could hear president trump one day after he asked president zelensky to look into the bidens and a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election. remember president trump said he barely knew gordon sondland but knew well noenough to have a phe conversation. and by the way what kind of security is that? getting on the phone with a president in the middle of a crowded restaurant to talk about national security issues and doing it in such a way that a aid hears the whole thing? what is that? we've learned that aid is david holmes. he is a career foreign service officer who's scheduled to tell his stor

i'm going to let bill taylor tell you the story. you've got to hear it for yourself. >> in the presence of my staff at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called president trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. the member of my staff could hear president trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. ambassador sondland told president trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. >> so a member of bill taylor's staff was a witness to the july 26th call between the president and million dollar trump donor gordon sondland. he could hear the president on the other end asking about investigations just one day after he had asked president zelensky to do him a favor and look into the bidens and a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election. remember it was just last week that the president said that he barely knew gordon sondland. remember? but he knew him well enough to have a phone conversation about the investigations he was leaning on ukraine to get. and by the way, what kind of security is that?

bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine and george kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state testified today for about six hours. taylor providing this crucial new evidence. here he is telling lawmakers about a phone call which took place one day after trump asked for a favor from the president of ukraine when zelensky brought up military aid. >> in the presence of at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called president trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. a member of a staff could hear prdz on the phone asking ambassador sondeland about the investigations. mr. sondland told president trump that the ukranians were ready to move forward. >> taylor then revealing what took place immediately after ambassador sondland, that, of course, is gordon sondland and ambassador to the eu right after he hung up with president trump. >> and i think you said that after the call when your staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought of ukraine, his response was that president trump cares more abo

bill taylor did offer some pretty explosive testimony behind closed doors. here's one of the key lines of the testimony, the transcript that was released -- that was my understanding, security assistance money would not come until the president committed to pursue an investigation. that was according to the transcript. it's one thing to see it in print, but what is the impact of hearing that in a public hearing? >> i think chairman schiff will be walking a tightrope. he has a lot of things to keep in mind in the democrat democrats who -- so he has a first chance to make a great first impression by tries to pain the narrative that indeed inappropriately the president of the united states had conditioned a white house visit and security aid on domestic political benefit. so he's really got to be able to paint this. i'm told from older, you know, staff members i used to work with up on the hill that the democrats are disappointed in the hearings they've had so star. certainly with corey lewandowski, and also with bob mueller. so they really know this is going t

that's who bill taylor, george kent are. that's who yovanovitch is and she's going to testify tomorrow. i think if there's a silver lining in this dark impeachment cloud, i think it's been the foreign service officers who have put country first. >> listen to john radcliffe. had an important moment yesterday in the hearing when he put the two career diplomats, these two veteran american diplomats on the spot. asked them if the president committed an impeachable offense. listen to this. >> okay. very good. so in this impeachment hearing today where we impeach presidents for treason or bribery or other high crimes, where is the impeachable offense in that call? are either of you here today to assert there was an impeachable offense in that call? shout it out. anyone? >> mr. radcliffe, i am not here to do anything having to do with -- to decide about impeachment. that's not what either of us are here to do. this is your job. >> what did you think about that answer. this is your job. >> i thought it was interesting a politician l

big witness on day one, bill taylor. who serves as the top diplomat in ukraine right now and in testimony released today said he was told that president trump was the one pushing the quid pro quo. aid to ukraine in exchange for investigating the bidens and as kaitlan collins reports the white house is particularly concerned about the impact of taylor's testimony. >> we will begin our opening hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week. >> reporter: with a date set for the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, the white house is bracing itself. >> beginning with testimony of ambassador taylor and kenton wednesday. >> reporter: all three witnesses on schedule have already testified behind closed doors. but now the democrats will be making their case for impeaching president trump in public. sources tell cnn white house officials appear the most concerned about bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine who told lawmakers there was an to a transcript released today.- the president has tried to dismiss taylo

that's bill taylor. and he is the person who came before lawmakers and said it was his understanding that there was an explicit expectation that the ukrainians would have to announce investigation into president trump's political rivals in order to get what they wanted. and that was the release on the u.s. security assistance that had been held up. he had been told there was a hold on that $400 million of assistance. and also the fact they wanted a meeting between president trump and president zelensky. now bill taylor is someone who is widely respected. he came out of retirement in order to take this job. he actually had to be convinced by secretary pompeo to take the job because he was worried about taking it after ambassador yovanovitch had been abruptly kicked out because president trump had lost confidence in her. and he is also someone who is a west point graduate and he is a vietnam war veteran. a highly decorated, respected diplomat that we're going to be hearing from. and then on the other side

i mentioned that bill taylor is serving as the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine right now. so he's based at the embassy in kiev. he's obviously had to leave ukraine and come back to the u.s. in order to give this public testimony tomorrow. but before he did so bill taylor just published an op-ed in a weekly newspaper in ukraine and that op-ed that he wrote is running right now in that weekly paper ahead of his impeachment testimony tomorrow. and in this op-ed bill taylor says nothing about impeachment explicitly, certainly says nothing about president trump, but he sets the scale -- he zeros it again. right? he calibrates our vision again back to what is normal and how the u.s. government is supposed to behave toward ukraine and why. he's very emphatic about it. this is what he says in this brand new op-ed. he says, "the united states stands side by side with the people and government of ukraine ready to help ukraine achieve its goals, halting russia's aggression against ukraine and cementing ukraine's place in the euro-atlantic community. the united states is firmly commit

you know, bill taylor is not just some bureaucrat. bill taylor is a west point grad. i represent the united states military academy. it's my honor to do so. the guy's a west point grad. served as an infrantry officer n vietnam. while donald trump was avoiding military service, bill taylor was getting shot at and he's put 40 years not just in the military but in the foreign service. this is a deeply credible, knowledgeable person and he tells a heartbreaking story where he reluctantly, almost belatedly after taking over for ambassador yovanovitch, realizes what is happening and he does everything he can to stop it. to work within the system. to bring it to his superiors. and he belatedly realizes that there is a quid pro quo being demanded of a country, as he points out, that is fighting the russians in a shooting war right now. and he understands what that military assistance means to the freedom and security of that country. and he tells a very powerful story. i'm glad that the public's going to see it. >> let me put up an exchange you had with him on sort of reinfor

this is where bill taylor says mr. giuliani said he plans to travel to kiev in the coming days and wants to meet with the nation's president-elect to urge him to pursue inquiries that allies of the white house contend could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to mr. trump. one is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. the other is the involvement of former vice president joe biden's son at a gas company owned by a ukrainian oligarch. we don't know who the questioner is because it's not clear in the transcript. he says, if you could read the quotation from mr. giuliani two paragraphs down. bill taylor reads the quotation from giuliani. we're not meddling in an election, we're meddling in an investigation which we have a right to do, rudy giuliani said. >> rudy giuliani has a right to meet with the president-elect of ukraine and the united states government thinks that's normal? >> bill taylor was called back to be the head of the u.s. mis

i mentioned that bill taylor is serving as the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine right now. so he's base said d at the emba kiev. bill taylor suz published an op-ed in a weekly newspaper in ukraine, and that op-ed he wrote is running right now in that weekly paper ahead of his impeachment testimony tomorrow. and in this op-ed bill taylor says nothing about impeachment explicitly, nothing about president trump, but he sets the scale -- he zeros it again. he calibrates our vision again back to what is normal and how the u.s. government is supposed to behave towards ukraine and why. he's very emphatic about it. he says, quote, the united states stands side by side with the people and government of ukraine ready to help ukraine achieve its goals, halting russia's aggression against ukraine and is cementing ukraine's place. your success is our success. we will not allow russia to dismantle the international order painstakingly built after world war ii. the consechts cepts will benefi nations. russia's war against ukraine shreds the international norms that kept peace and enabled

bill taylor served in the 101st airborne serving in vietnam. he then devoted his life to public service. and his career to the united states department of state. he was serving. he has served republicans, democrats, every president since the 1980s without any favor to any political party or another. he was recruited earlier this year by none other than president trump and secretary mike pompeo to come back and be america's envoy to ukraine. so he has no political axes to grind. he has no political agenda. if you read his deposition, which is already on the record, he paints a devastating portrait of an effort by the president to subvert american national security. >> you know what, peter baker, i know you've got some breaking news that i'm going to get to in a second. but i believe your byline is on that extraordinary piece of reporting when bill taylor first became known. i spoke to a source on the hill yesterday who said -- i said what's been the most dramatic piece of testimony? and he said it is still that opening statement from ambassador

we're hearing from george kent and bill taylor, bill taylor being first this morning. what are you going to be looking out in all of this? >> the amazing thing for people like bill taylor, we already have a preview of what they're going to be talking about. and it's no surprise to me that the witnesses are starting with bill taylor. they have given the moat damning testimony against the administration. on the one hand, however, a lot of bill taylor's information comes secondhand. but on the other hand, he paints a very scary picture, at least in his view, of what was going on with foreign policy, with ukraine and the withholding aid. >> what is the theory of the democrats knowing they have closed-door depositions from both bill taylor and george kent, knowing part of the story that they're going to be telling in this public forum today? >> it makes their job a little easier in the sense they have a huge transcript to pick and choose from. and really put together a razor-sharp questioning, so they can get out exactly the information they want. and, remember, these publi

they also simultaneously announced that bill taylor will be a witness at the first public hearing of the impeachment proceedings against donald j. trump. that first public hearing is now on the calendar. it's going to be a week from today. ambassador bill taylor and another senior state department official named george kent, they're going to be the first public testimony in the impeachment proceedings a week from today. and then two days later, next friday, there will be a second public impeachment hearing, and that one will feature testimony from the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, the one who was called from that post and sort of inexplicably fired, essentially it seems to get her out of the way so rudy giuliani and president trump could pursue their scheme in ukraine, the scheme for which the president is now being impeached, presumably for which mr. giuliani has now obtained his own defense counsel. the closed-door depositions are continuing for now. other people have been asked to testify, others have been subpoenaed to testify. most of those people who have been

bill is one of those, bill taylor, where he said there was a quid pro quo here. there was a, give this now get that, ultimately. take it now to republicans. the democrats find -- they are convinced they have the justification for an impeachment vote here. but what about convincing republicans? we've been playing senator graham's response to a quid pro quo. let's listen to what he had to say about what's happening here. >> what i can tell you about the trump policy toward the ukraine, it was incoherent. it depends on who you talk to. they seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo. >> incapable, incoherent of performing a quid pro quo. the democrats are saying there was one. what does it take to convince republicans -- republican voters, that a quid pro quo happened and ultimately, it's something worth impeaching the president for? >> it almost sounds like lindsey graham is arguing the trump administration was kind of too stupid to get itself together to muster a quid pro quo. right? and that's a very similar defense to what we heard in the russia investigatio

if it happened on july 26th and bill taylor's staffer heard it on july 26th, why did bill taylor only learn of it on friday as he said in his opening statement? >> that i have no idea. perhaps we'll learn when the gentleman comes in the closed door session in the next couple of days and also from sondland. i don't know why he just learned about it. he seemed to be surprised, as well, remember. >> again, that does beg a question. did the staffer not think it was important? had the staffer forgotten about it? obviously you need to know more about this. >> and considering the administration has been trying to do everything they could to cover up the details, there are complaints that this is no first hand knowledge. both the ambassador and the other gentleman that spoke said that they have detailed notes. but the state department is holding onto them and will not allow them to release them. so when there is an opportunity for first hand information, my republican colleagues and the administration don't want to see it come forward. >> but to be clear, you and/or your committee will get a

we have yet to see bill taylor's transcript yet to come out. we will hear from their own voice, questions what they say happened. their concerns that they raised, how they deal with some of the questioning from republicans, who are trying to undercut the case if there was any quid pro quo. it's also a soon that this investigation is rapidly moving towards that push and eventually of impeaching this president. because after the public hearings e hearing phase, kate, then we will see both potentially in the house judiciary committee for articles of impeachment after they consider, have their own hearings, then that can happen in the full house, a vote to impeach this president potentially by the end of the year. of course, that would be absolutely historic, the third time in history that would happen. schiff indicating here, three public hearings next week with key individuals who witnessed all of these events. he says there will be more witnesses to come. >> and that's also an important note, manu, great reporting. is that this is three very big

go after bill taylor? i mean, decades worth of service in vietnam, west point, ambassador to ukraine. this guy has a distinguished resume. apparently a very good note taker. i think this guy is almost unimpeachable as a witness. they can argue while he never spoke to the president, therefore, why should we take everything he says as seriously as we are. okay. they can make that case. but good luck trying to impeach the integrity of these career people who, you know, who have distinguished service records. it would be a terrible mistake. republicans should simply acknowledge that they should acknowledge that this conduct was at the very least inappropriate. at the very least. and that -- but maybe this does not rise to the level of impeachment. i think they're better off acknowledging the wrongdoing and then arguing against impeachment. >> do you think they'll do that? do you think they'll somehow go after the character of the witnesses? >> i hope they don't because i think it would be a bad strategy. i don

bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, dealing with the tough questions he was getting from some of the republicans. >> i don't consider myself a star witness for anything. >> they do. >> i don't. i'm responding to your questions. i am here to tell you what i know. i'm not going to tell you anything i don't know, i will tell you everything i do know. >> since you learned from others, they could be wrong, right? >> since you learned it from others, you could be wrong, correct? >> i am telling you what i heard they tell me. >> they could be wrong or they could be mistaken or could have heard it incorrectly, right, ambassador taylor? >> people make mistakes. >> in fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it's not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct? >> it's not as outlandish as it could be, yeah, i agree. >> a little smile. what do you think? >> bill taylor was doing one thing very clearly, throughout this testimony, which was putting on display his experience here. he has been a diplomat

bill taylor describing a phone call between president trump and the u.s. ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland, overheard by his aide one day after jump's july 25th phone call with if ukrainian president. >> mr. sondland told president trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what the president thought about ukraine. he said that president trump cares more about the investigations of biden, that rudy giuliani was pressing for. >> reporter: trump knows nothing about that call. but house democrats say the latest information helps make the case that trump abused his oath of office even stronger. >> as other testimony has likewise indicated, is instructions are coming from the president on down. >> reporter: taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state, george kent, described what they encountered as there was a meeting at the white house for leverage for ukraine for investigations for the president's political gain. >> to withhold that assistance for no good reason, other than help with th

you accurately described bill taylor's testimony. he didn't believe ukrainians knew about it until after disclosed publicly in late august. two other witnesses that haven't gotten that much attention, laura cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense and catherine croft, woulds for the state department both of them testified in depositions that the ukrainians knew earlier than that. early on. >> ambassador taylor said the defense minister said to him, only -- in september, called him and said, what going on? >> right. >> you have to think the defense minister knew sooner he would have called taylor sooner. >> just saying contradictory evidence. >> if that's what you're hanging it on you have a problem. what democrats are trying to do, you saw adam schiff do this, begin to tell the story. tell a story of the timeline of exactly what transpired here. why he led opening statement as he did and daniel goldman did questions as he did, which was repeating information we are very familiar with. those of us paying close attention to it. i

investigate joe biden his most likely political rival in the elections of 202020 coming up now and bill taylor today confirmed to me a meeting a potential meeting between trump and alinsky as well as military aides hundreds of millions of dollars were in fact conditioned to such investigations that would be a quid pro quo and that in fact would be a betrayal of president tom's oath of office that's at least the line here that the democrats and chairman adam schiff are following here the big question of course will be do the voters see that as well the voters in the entire world watching these hearings which began today and people were expecting to see somewhat of a partisan fight if you will going on and you were inside the chamber there where the hearing was taking place i mean what was the atmosphere like today. well the atmosphere was quite a sober one but of course the republicans are under enormous pressure and you could feel that here today in the hearings and the run up there was a memo circulated addressed to republican house members where they blind out the strategy of their de

he goes after angela merkel and justin true dough and bill taylor and george kent. public enemies. >> i want to ask you about some reporting that our great colleagues had yesterday and it was a closed press speech that former national security advisor john bolton gave. you and i both in interest of full disclosure worked in the george at the time, a somewhat polarizing appointee to usun. united states ambassadors of the u.n. he has emerged, though, i think in the testimony of one of the witnesses, a strong antenna and aversion to what he described as a drug deal. he also warned yesterday in his close-door speech that there is a real danger that donald trump could do something like pull out of nato. do you think there are people on the inside with even more damaging revelations than what we've already heard? >> i think it stands to reason. it's -- it was a contribution f contradiction for the republicans to complain today about the level of the witnesses. mike pompeo wasn't there. john bolton wasn't there. the vice president of the united states obviously knows a lot

let's remember while you're ignoring, let's remember bill taylor testified to that under oath. twice. in his public testimony yesterday and in his closed-door testimony last month. twice. something else you'd have to ignore, another bombshell revelation. this one is from ambassador sondland, himself, who, after reading the transcripts of closed-door testimony from bill taylor and top russia adviser tim morrison, suddenly remembered a conversation he had with a top aide to president zelensky. a private conversation. right after zelensky met with vice president pence in warsaw. that was september 1st. "after that large meeting, i now recall speaking individually with mr. yermak where i said resumption of u.s. aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we have been discussing for many weeks." well, that's a pretty big piece of evidence of a shakedown. it gives us investigations or give us the investigations or you don't get the money. ambassador sondland likely to have more to say about that when he testifies publicly next week. mor

we'll finally hear live from bill taylor. bill taylor is the top diplomat in ukraine, whose testimony has been some of the most explosive so far. he's going to lay out what he knows about the president's alleged shakedown, trying to force ukraine into investigations that could help him in 2020. also the state department official george kent. he's going to detail rudy giuliani's campaign to undermine ambassador marie yovanovitch. taylor and kent set to testify wednesday, 10:00 a.m. yovanovitch is scheduled for friday morning. and house democrats say they expect to hold at least one more week of public hearings though we don't know yet who those witnesses will be. and then there are the transcripts, okay? 2,677 pages released last week full of detailed witness accounts. well, tonight there are more, and we've got new details including testimony from pentagon official laura cooper. laura cooper visited ukraine just last week. let's not forget republicans tried to distract her from her testimony with an empty political stunt. rem

it'll begin with star witness bill taylor. taylor was the first of four officials to affirm the quid pro quo at the strf the

bill taylor revealed a call between president trump and eu ambassador gordon sondland that was overheard by taylor's staffer. this took place one day after the infamous july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky. during that july 26th call with sondland, the staffer said mr. trump explicitly asked about the status of investigations into the bidens and the aide said he overheard this call. well, he is set to now testify behind closed doors tomorrow. >> sources tell me that members of the committee did not know about this revelation until they saw this statement from taylor yesterday morning. the rest of the hearing essentially laid the ground work for what lies ahead. tomorrow we will hear from the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine who taylor effectively replaced. marie yovanovitch. and next week, four witnesses who do have first-hand knowledge nation will testify. that includes gordon sondland who spoke to the president repeatedly. he will no doubt be asked about that. jessica schneider in washington live with all of these developments. >> reporter: good morning,

bill taylor and george kent. by the way, they're both actively serving members of the diplomatic community. then friday marie yovanovitch will testify. another eight witnesses will testify next week. we just learned about them overnight. they will discuss how the president of the united states allegedly pressured a foreign government to investigate his political opponents. >> cnn has learned that democrats and republicans have been preparing for this critical day by holding closed door practice sessions. democrats will try to lay out evidence that president trump tried to bribe or extort

bill taylor is the acting us ambassador to ukraine. he's held a number of ambassador posts, and is a vietnam war veteran with a medal for valour. here he is recounting the moment he found out the us had put military aid to ukraine on hold. ina in a regular secure video conference call onjuly 18th in a regular secure video conference call onjuly18th i in a regular secure video conference call on july 18th i heard in a regular secure video conference call onjuly18th i heard a staff person from management and budget say there was a hold on security systems to ukraine. but could not say why. for the end of an otherwise normal meeting a voice on the call, the person was off screen, said that she was from omb and her boss instructed her not to approve any additional spending on security systems for ukraine until further notice. i and others sat in astonishment, ukrainians were fighting russians, and counted on not only the training and weapons but also the assurance of us support. all that the onb staff person said was that the directive had

bill taylor was asked about when the president was asking about the investigations. the president said he had no recollection with that phone call. >> i don't recall. no, not at all. not even a little bit. >> reporter: the president complained about the inspector-general for the community, this one that reviewed the whistleblower's complaint and found it creditable enough to turn it over to kronk. th congress. the inspector-general, he picked for that job. it comes as the white house is saying they're not worried about this. they found this hearing to be boring. the president was tweeting about it. retweeting about their some his allies tweeting defenses of him. and the former ambassador to ukrai ukraine, marie yovanovitch, will testify tomorrow. >>> president erdogan expressse optimism. we go to istanbul with the latest developments. how is that appearance on stage yesterday playing from where you are today? >> the meeting between president trump and president erdogan came at a tough time for the leaders of the two country. the companies are at a series of areas whe

it came from ambassador bill taylor,ll who testified alongsi state department official george kent inst the probe's first pubc hearing yesterday. during his opening statement, ambassador taylor testified about a july 26th phone conversation that happened just one day after trump's controversial call with the president of ukraine. watchth this. >> in the presence of my staff, at o a restaurant, ambassador sondland called president trump and told him of his meetings in kiev, and the member of my staff could hear president trump on themp phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. ambassador sondland told president trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. following the call with president trump, the memberfo o my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought aboutso ukraine. ambassador sondland reporting that president trump cares more about theth investigations of bidenab which giuliani was pressingia for. >> so two sources telling nbc news thatin the aide who overhed the phone call inside that ukrainian restaurant is david holmes, the counsel for pol

bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine tells congressman ratcliffe. ratcliffe, who at one point had been nominated to be director of national intelligence, although that offer was withdrawn by president trump after it became clear that ratcliffe would have a very difficult time getting through the republican-controlled senate. and i think from that question, the witnesses were obviously not going to answer. we see potentially why. taylor and kent were at that hearing as fact witnesses to describe what they knew or what they don't know. by not answering the question, whether or not the conduct was impeachable, bill taylor and george kent were doing their jobs. but that was just one of the many distraction trump allies tried to throw out from the ranking republican on the intelligence committee, devin nunes, using his time to try to hammer home what tom bossert called a debunked conspiracy theory that ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 election. to various republicans asking the witnesses whether they thought hunter biden was qualified to serve

diplomat to ukraine bill taylor. we're pleased to be joined by house judiciary chairman and new york democratic congressman jerry nadler. we appreciate you taking the time this morning. >> good morning. >> let me begin with a very basic question. have you and the democrats started drafting articles of impeachment against the president? >> no, we have not. this whole thing is really a couple of phases. phase one which we're in now, which the intelligence community and some of the other communities are doing and will continue doing until they finish, is the evidence-gathering fact-finding phase. then it will come to the judiciary committee. our job is to consider the evidence, reach conclugss concl draft and debate perhaps articles of impeachment. jeremy raskin said he's already convinced there is sufficient evidence for articles of impeachment against the united states. are you concerned that undermines democrats' argument that they're holding an open process with open minds as they gather evidence? >> no, i'm not bec

diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor. a west point grad, a vietnam vet. today, he revealed what a staff member told him about a phone call president trump allegedly made the day after that infamous call with the new president of ukraine. that next day, the president, the alleged call and what the president was asking about. now that staff member who says he heard the president has already been called to testify here on the hill. abc's mary bruce leads us off from washington tonight. >> reporter: after weeks of questioning behind closed doors, today, the impeachment battle burst into the open with millions of americans watching. >> do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> reporter: democrats calling their star witness, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor, a vietnam veteran who served every u.s. president since ronald reagan. taylor testified he had a "clear understanding" that ukraine would not receive nearly $400 million in military aid until they

diplomat bill taylor and state department official george kent. can we see them? they look like two high school teachers who say this bill doesn't dismiss you, i dismiss you. [ laughter ] i like these guys. mostly because if you blend them together you get bill nye the science guy. >> come on >> i can see tom hanks could play them down the road when it becomes a major motion picture >> yeah, you can guarantee there will be a movie henceforth >> no question he is part of hollywood's most iconic couple and is the youngest egot winner in history and now john legend is claiming a new title. sexiest man alive. and he was crowned the winner this year by "people" magazine the singer isn't letting it go to his head. he's even a little confused by it he posted this comparison photo of last year's winner idris elba and then him he says he's perplexed but yeah, he'll take it. meanwhile, his wife chrissy teigen "my secret is out i've fulfilled my dream of in our words having been with the sexiest man alive. in classic chrissy teigen way she uses a word that's not so appropria

but here's the part bill taylor brought to the attention of his impeachment committees. quote, during the lunch ambassador sondland said that he was going to call president trump to give him an update. ambassador sondland placed the call on his mobile phone, and i heard him announce himself several times along the lines of gordon sondland holding for the president. it appeared he was being transferred through several layers of switch boards and assistants. and i understood he'd been connected to president trump. while ambassador sondland's phone was not on speakerphone, i could hear the president's voice through the earpiece of the phone. the president's voice was very loud and recognizable, and ambassador sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time presumably because of the loud volume. i heard ambassador sondland greet the president and explain he was calling from kiev. i heard president trump then clarify that ambassador sondland was in ukraine. ambassador sondland replied, yes, he was in ukraine and went onto state that president zelensky -- forgiv

we're still chewing over the testimony of bill taylor which did come out yesterday and was explosive. it explains why democrats want him to be the first witness. there's one really key part of it i want to put up on your screen in which taylor is discussing the back and forth with adam schiff. he says, it was my clear understanding security assistance money would not come until the president committed to pursue the investigations, that's the president of ukraine. schiff says, so if they don't do this, they're not going to get it, that was your understanding. yes. are you aware that quid pro quo means this for that. i am. setting the latins aside, democrats are saying this is extortion. there you have taylor saying it in black and white. part of the reasons democrats warrant to make him the first witness. that's believe he has a powerful story to tell. >> peter, next wednesday, very busy. the first public hearing in the impeachment process and now president trump will also apparently be hosting the president of turkey, mr. erdogan. what do we know about that meeting? what do we know ab

which bill taylor's testimony is compelling. his opening statement is compelling. and you have access to that but he repeats it again in his deposition and it's essentially that there were two avenues. an official one, a state department one. and an unofficial one. and he uses words like i was alarmed, i was concerned. i mean, these are things that were highly unusual to him and he felt it was something to be concerned about. and specifically, it was the conditioning of military aid and bill taylor lays out just how important military aid to ukraine is for its independence from russia. it's no small thing. it's not just providing some tanks or some opjeeps. this is critically important stuff. and in return, what bill taylor perceived was a demand for personal benefit in the form of investigating people that could be damaging to the president's 2020 campaign. >> so let me ask you this. this is the transcript of his deposition. what's different about this than what's going to happen next week when bill taylor appears for public hearings? >> not much because this is a